Ojiisan
by Finnhart
Summary: COMPLETE. Yugi faces a difficult hurdle in his life when someone dear to him dies. To his utmost surprise Seto Kaiba is the first to find him. Read
1. Seto Arrives

**Author's Note:** Trying a three-part story now. I had intended just to make another oneshot, but I thought I should challenge myself. Plus I didn't want to keep on writing for hours, cuz it's currently 3am…

**Disclaimer:** All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me!

**Warnings:** None.

* * *

**Chapter One**

**Seto Arrives**

Seto stepped up to the Kame Game Shop, sneering at the tacky turtle logo. He then frowned, seeing with a pinch of surprise the shop's red door was open, crashing back and forth against the yellow wall in the high wind. Frowning as his hair whipped painfully into his eyes, he grabbed the handle of the door, battling against the force of the gale. The sign that hung on the inside indicated that the shop was closed for the night and indeed that was the way things looked as he peered through the entrance; all the lights were off, the racks of cards and games were safely locked behind glass hoods and no one was manning the till. Seto's frown deepened.

_Why is the front door wide open?_

He turned back to the _K4IBA2_limousine and motioned to Roland to wait for him. The reply was a wave and the dull slam of the car door as Roland got back into the driver's seat to hide from the worsening weather. Seto paused for a long moment, glaring hard at the door towards the back of the shop, wide open and casting a rectangle of yellow light onto the dark floor. Things seemed stranger than usual, but Seto knew that Yuugi would never refuse the proposition of a re-match in his own territory.

His nostrils flared and his eyes flashed as he crossed the threshold into his rival's meagre domain.

* * *

_Yuugi shuffled along the dark landing, rubbing his eyes._

'_Are you all right, aibou?'_

_Yuugi shuddered to a slow halt as a huge yawn overtook his body._

'_Y-yes –' another yawn overwhelmed him '– I'm just sleepy, Yami. I'm going to say goodnight to Mama and Ojii-san…'_

_The Puzzle gleamed softly as the Pharaoh smiled at Yuugi's continued stream of yawning._

_The first door on the right led to his mother's bedroom. Yuugi peered through the doorway, expecting to see her at her dresser or watching her television, but she had fallen asleep on her bed, a pair of reading glasses slipping down her nose and an open book in her lap. One slender hand was resting atop the book whilst the other lay wistfully on the empty space beside her, where another would have slept in the large double bed._

_Yuugi gazed at his father's pillow and frowned._

'_Aibou?'_

_The Pharaoh sensed his little vessel had grown tense and gloomy, and despite living with Yuugi for almost a year now, he had never seen the father. Yuugi had never even spoken of the man._

'_Aibou?'_

_Yuugi closed his eyes, the Pharaoh's voice was soft in his head. He opened them again._

'_Father left on a business trip five years ago,' he mumbled. 'He didn't come back.'_

_The Pharaoh was silent._

'_We don't know where he is. We don't know if he is dead or alive. We don't know if he didn't come back because he left for another woman… We don't know anything.'_

'_Aibou…'_

_Yuugi sighed and said no more. He knew his spontaneous muttering would be enough to quell the Pharaoh's unspoken curiosity._

_As he was about to leave the doorsill he looked back at his mother's sleeping form. He was half tempted to fold her glasses away and pull a blanket over her but at times he found it difficult to be close to her, as if he was worried she blamed him for the absence of her spouse. He sighed once more and moved further down the landing towards the stairs. His grandfather was so predictable; Yuugi knew that he would have fallen asleep in his favourite chair again whilst watching his favourite television programme._

_

* * *

_

Seto had meandered into the Mutou kitchen. By now he had wandered through several doors leading to disappointments such as a laundry room, a small toilet room and an incredibly cramped spare bedroom. He hadn't stumbled upon a single soul.

_Surely they can't have gone to bed already_, he mused. _It's barely 9 o' clock… Though I suppose the Mutous are a rather tame breed…_

He glanced around the tiny kitchen. He saw the remains of some tonkatsu and rice on plates by the sink and some washed crockery on a drying rack. He looked along the counter; a mugtree, a breadbin, a toaster, microwave, some crumbs…

He sighed heavily, beginning to feel a little claustrophobic in the kitchen that was barely a quarter of the size of his own. He rubbed his sinus. The high-pitched buzz of the obviously ancient fridge was beginning to worm its way inside his head. Cracking his lids open once more he gazed at the small kitchen table and the few off-kilter stools that surrounded it. It was packed tightly in the corner under a tiny yellow-curtained window. He waltzed over and stooped to look at the few objects scattered over the surface. There were salt and pepper cellars behind which someone was propping up a mountain of unopened bills and junk mail. He nosily flicked through them, most were addressed to Yuugi's mother, nearly all the junk mail was for the grandfather and he recognised the school's crest on some envelopes that he identified as absence letters.

_Yuugi's been skipping school?_

He cast a quick eye over the rest of the items on the table. A choked ashtray, one of Yuugi's textbooks and a maroon exercise book – Seto squinted at the unholy scrawl across the front of it – _Katsuya Jounouchi – hands off!_He smirked when he saw that another person in another coloured pen had circled Katsuya's note and written in a bold script on a connecting line, _'THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!'_

'_Kaiba!'_

Seto nearly coughed his own heart up and felt as though his skin had leapt three feet off his body. He whipped around, eyes darting to and fro. The voice had been muffled, as though coming from another room. He felt suspicion rise. Surely he hadn't been seen by anyone in the house yet, how could anyone know he was here? With a thundering heart he crept out of the kitchen towards another open door that he had yet to explore.

'_Kaiba!'_

The voice was irritatingly familiar and still muted as though separated by numerous thin, plaster walls. Seto noticed that the voice was accompanied by a soft jangling sound. He moved into the last room on the ground floor, an open plan living room-come-dining room. The carpet was hideous and threadbare; none of the dated furniture matched and every inch of wall space was taken up by ugly paintings and faded photographs. He peered at the photograph closest to him; it was of a young Yuugi playing with a large, shaggy dog. He blinked at the peculiar insight into his rival's life and continued into the room.

'_Kaiba!'_

Seto froze. The voice was closer now, the accompanying tinkling sounds were more urgent than before. When he heard the voice he felt strange and wary. He shot a glance over his shoulder to make sure no one was standing behind him for he was sure he had felt the ghostly fingers of soundless company.

He looked back to his surroundings. He was met with the back of an old armchair situated right in front of the television. Over the top he saw several spikes of brittle grey hair.

'Mutou Sugoroko…'

He took a step forward to confront the old man, or to wake him up as he suspected he would have to but before his foot even hit the ground the voice roared loud and desperate in his ears.

'_KAIBA!'_

He looked down and his eyes widened. Yuugi's ridiculously over-sized puzzle pendant was lying on the floor at his feet, shivering and tinkling like a strange pyramid faerie. The prickly feeling of unseen company filled Seto once more and suddenly he felt as though he was surrounded by a circle of people, each and every one of them staring at him.

The Puzzle shook violently and shuddered across the floor, startling Seto. He darted away from it, circling around the armchair that Sugoroko was sitting in. He glanced at the old man, wondering if he had woken him up, the floorboards were creaky and Seto certainly wasn't a lightweight person.

The first thing that unnerved Seto was the fact that Sugoroku was sitting with his eyes wide open, staring blankly at the television which had flicked to the blue stand-by screen. The broad, unblinking gaze made Seto's skin crawl. He eyes flickered.

'Mutou-san, what are you staring at?'

The old man didn't show any signs that he had heard Seto, or had even acknowledged the presence of another person in the house. Seto began to feel increasingly uncomfortable. The silence of the small, dark house was intimidating him greatly. He looked down at Yuugi's Puzzle, now motionless, but somehow much closer than it was before.

He suddenly realised the strangeness of the fact that Yuugi's Puzzle was lying forgotten on the floor of the living room. The boy swore blind that the spirit of a man, a ruler of ancient Egypt no less, resided in the Puzzle and that it their combined mission to rid the world of evil and eventually set said spirit free. Seto had come to understand that this imaginary soul was Yuugi's best friend, his partner and his father and his god. He assumed the boy would shatter to a thousand pieces without the Puzzle, he had never seen him without it slung around his neck. He would die unless his soul mate wasn't resting by his heart.

Seto crouched to pick it up, but no sooner had the flesh of his fingertips brushed against the cool metal, a surge of power flared in his vision and the deep voice of the Other Yuugi filled his ears.

'_Kaiba! Help me–'_

Seto yelped and fell backwards, crashing into Sugoroko's armchair and cracking his head on the corner of the television stand. He swore loudly. Surely that fall would have woken the old man up? He looked up at the old man through his hair. He felt a jolt of nerves. Sugoroko's head had flopped forward, his chin buried into his chest. His eyes held the same unblinking gaze as before.

Seto rose on his knees. He cast a slow eye over the old man, taking everything in, the stiff arms, the short tumbler of an amber liquid grasped in the left hand and the dead cigarette in the right hand, an inch-long ash cherry balancing precariously. It was clear that Sugoroko hadn't moved in quite a while.

Tentatively Seto reached out a long hand to touch the grey, parchment skin of the man's face. He gasped loudly and drew sharply away when he felt stone cold flesh.

Mutou Sugoroku was dead.

* * *

**Author's Note:** That actually wasn't quite as hard as I thought it would be. It is rather short though. What did you think? In a sea of Prideshipping and Puppyshipping I thought a little SetoxYugi interaction wouldn't be so bad (this is NOT a yaoi fic by the way, I ship SetoxJou).

Review or Seto will sneak into your house and poke through your mail!


	2. The Other Seto

**Authors Note:** This is going to be the quickest update I've ever done XD

Thanks to **Kukki**for the speedy review, I appreciate your enthusiasm! I hope you like the next chapter, it's a little short I'm afraid…

**Disclaimer:** All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me!

**Warnings:** None.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

**The Other Seto**

Seto felt a slight twinge of panic. Whenever someone in his life had died it was for a reason, and was usually orchestrated to benefit him and his company. A few moments passed and his gut tightened at that thought and he bowed his head, almost in shame, as he remembered his parents.

He looked up to the corpse. Mutou Sugoroku was dead because he was old and appeared to have a liking to alcohol and cigarettes. Seto wasn't sure what to do.

_Am I meant to call an ambulance for a dead body? What about the police…?_

The situation was so alien to him. His panic fluttered all the more wildly around his body and he glanced behind him through the door where he could see the stairwell. Yuugi must be nearby if he had left his imaginary friend lying around on the floor so carelessly. He stretched across the ugly carpet to grasp the Puzzle once more, fully prepared for the strange voice. After all, Seto had heard voices in his head his whole life, just because someone else's imaginary friend was talking to him didn't mean that it was real.

'_Kaiba, you stubborn donkey!'_

'Nope,' Seto mumbled idly, picking up the Puzzle and rising to his feet. 'You are not real, Other Yuugi. I'm suffering from panic and sleep deprivation.'

'_If I was not real then I would not be able to do THIS!'_

Seto cried out in pain as a searing white light blasted out of the Puzzle, his hands were smouldering against the metal and despite his efforts to drop it he found that his fingers were locked. His palms were firmly stuck to the Puzzle and he was burning!

He shrieked as the pain grew, snaking up his arms and into his chest. His eyes watered and he sank to his knees.

'Please – please stop! It hurts!'

'_Kaiba, you will help me find my aibou! You must help me!'_

'S-stop! Please!'

As suddenly as it had flared up the light and heat was gone. The Puzzle fell to the ground with a loud clunk and Seto dropped to his hands and knees, quaking and wheezing.

'_Please Kaiba; I don't know where he is. Help me find him –'_

Seto glared at the Puzzle with pure hatred, the eye was gleaming; the spirit was looking at him. He reached for it again, careful to hold it by the chain this time. He brought it close to his pale face and hissed cruelly into the eye.

'I will find him, but you're not going to be with me when I do!'

'_No! Kaiba!'_

Seto promptly regretted his actions, the words of the Other Yuugi howled furiously in his ears and the blinding light returned. His entire body prickled and the room began to swim into darkness. He felt as though he was falling and as he prepared to hit the ground he realised with a jolt of shock that he was still standing in the living room, but something felt different and very, very wrong.

He glanced around and nearly fell over in fright. Beside him stood another Kaiba Seto. He spluttered, how was that possible? He glanced down at himself and gave a shout, his body had faded! He splayed his hands before him and through his very flesh he could see the paintings on the other side of the room, as though he was peering through sheets of peach coloured glass. He glanced again at the Other Seto and frowned. His body was solid and real.

'_What's going on?'_ he hissed venomously. _'What have you done?'_

The Other Seto turned to look at him. Seto felt his blood run cold. A pair of familiar gleaming ruby eyes glared directly at him, and third golden eye shimmered brightly in his forehead. These were the eyes he stared into with loathing as he battled against his greatest rival.

'_What is this?'_ he roared at the Other Seto.

'You refused to help me, Kaiba.'

Seto faltered at the sound of his own voice, cold and calculated as it spoke to him.

'You refused to help me find my aibou –'

'_I did not!'_ he hollered_. 'I just said that I wouldn't take you with me!'_

'How do you think Yuugi is doing without me at this time?' the Other Seto growled. 'I would have pushed the Puzzle across the belt of the world with pure determination Kaiba, just to find my aibou, but I think someone would notice a necklace skittering across the floor!'

Seto growled. _'You meddling idiot! I won't have you waltzing around in my body, you'll break it!'_

'In your body no one will stop me in my search for Yuugi.'

'_NO!'_ Seto's scream was as inhuman as the power of the Puzzle around his other self's neck. _'GET OUT OF MY BODY, DEMON!'_

Seto charged at his other self and plunged his arms deep into his chest. He felt himself melting into the solid flesh, a golden blaze grew around them and Seto's entire body was burning. He heard the Spirit of the Puzzle wailing, begging him to understand. He didn't listen, determined to overcome the invasion of his body.

With a final push Seto felt real ground beneath his feet once more, his soul crashed back into his body with the force of an electric shock, knocking the breath from his lungs and making his knees weak. He shot a glance at the Puzzle hanging in his grasp.

'_Please Kaiba! Take me to find Yuugi! He'll need me –'_

With a snarl Seto flung the Puzzle across the room with all his might where it smacked into the wall, knocking a tacky painting off its hook and dislodging a sizeable chunk of plaster. The light of the Puzzle diminished in the corner, its twinkling silenced.

Seto was breathing heavily, he felt as though he had run a marathon up a vertical track. Being possessed by the spirit of the Puzzle had drained him, even his bones felt weak and rubbery. Yuugi constantly switched between spirits, how did his little body cope? He shook his head, trying to dismiss a mounting headache. His plans for the evening were not going well. He doubted that he would get a answer to his proposition out of Yuugi tonight, and Seto would not wish to his rival to make that decision if he was not on top form.

His head shot up at the sound of footfalls from the next floor.

'Yuugi-kun? Yuugi-kun! Is that you?'

The panicked voice of a woman called through the house. Seto listened to her scurrying in and out of the rooms upstairs.

'What was all that noise? Yuugi-kun, where are you? Sugo-sama?'

Seto was tense. He felt sure that the woman had searched every room and would now thunder down the stairs in search of her son.

_So Yuugi isn't here…_

The Puzzle jingled sadly in its corner.

…_the front door was wide open…_

Without a backwards glance at the old man or the Puzzle, Seto swept from the living room, his billowing coat tails barely whipping round the corner through the shop and into the night as Yuugi's mother raced downstairs.

* * *

**Authors Note:** There! Chapter 2! Choppy switches between real-time and flashbacks are kinda my thing, but I couldn't find a decent place to get one in. It ended up being much shorter than I had hoped; nonetheless I'm quite pleased with it. This fic may und up having four parts, it depends how well I can get the next chapter to flow.

Review! Or Yami will possess you!


	3. The Contamination of Seto

**Authors Note:** Final chapter! Longer than the last. Enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me!

**Warnings:** Swearing.

* * *

**Chapter Three**

**The Contamination of Seto**

Seto bundled into the front of the limo next to Roland.

'That was quick, sir –'

'We didn't talk,' Seto snapped. 'Yuugi's not there. He ran off when he found his grandfather dead.'

Roland gasped. 'Wh–why didn't you call, sir? You left him in there?'

Seto turned to Roland, staring at him hard, but seemingly focused on another thought. For a moment Roland thought his master was angry with him; he had the same mad look in his eye and flared nostrils as when he was about to explode into a fit of passionate rage. Seto's thin lips were pursed.

'I'm going to go and find Yuugi.'

Roland ogled at him.

'Sir? His grandfather just died, I don't think he'll be in a state to think about accepting a rematch –'

'For heaven's sake I'm not going to ask him now! I'm just going to prove to the Other Yuugi that I'm better than him –'

'The _Other Yuugi,_ sir…?'

Seto glanced at Roland quickly through the corner of his eye, realising his slip. He turned away to glare out of the dark window, only to be met with his reflection in the glass. He stared into his own eyes and for one heart-flipping moment he thought he saw a glint of red looking back at him. He snapped his eyelids tightly shut and took a deep breath, but the faint tinkling of the Puzzle would not leave his ears.

'I'm going to search on foot for Yuugi,' Seto said sharply as he turned back to Roland. 'He left his house in a panicked hurry, he can't have gone far. There's a park around here somewhere, I'm going to look there first. Be ready for a call.'

Before Roland had time to give the affirmative, Seto had left the vehicle and was striding purposefully into the night, hair glinting strangely under the orange streetlamps.

* * *

Yuugi had blundered unseeingly from the building. He was now soaring along the dark street like a feral cat, panting wildly. No sooner had the pads of his small fingers brushed along the rope-like veins of his grandfather's hand he had felt his ribcage shrinking in upon his heart and his breath. Yami had called out, but the sound had been a fuzzy rush to Yuugi's ears. He had flown well beyond the shop door before he had even realised that he had begun to move.

The Pharaoh had fallen silent or perhaps the roaring waves of blood and adrenaline in his ears was drowning him out; Yuugi couldn't be sure, he certainly wasn't going to stop until his kneecaps cracked and his muscles fell away from his broken bones.

He had dashed through several well-known shortcuts until he had reached a mild suburban area. The houses were low and the pathways were wide. Trees loomed in an ominous orange-grey under the streetlights. Yuugi knew full well where he was and instead of carrying along at breakneck speed along the path that ran beside the road he darted across it, disappearing into a network of paths that spidered behind the garden fences of docile houses.

He moved like a low shadow over a dark expanse of green, nearly ploughing into a tall hedge before exploding onto another street where a collection of small necessities shops were huddled on the corner. He ran around the corner and found himself on a tiny playing field that rolled down through the darkness, the curve of the ground hiding the small play park at the end. He skidded to a halt through the riled mud that earlier downpours had caused. He felt the damp climbing up his trousers to his shaking knees.

Now standing stock-still in the middle of the playing field Yuugi strained his ears to hear whether there was anyone at the park. At first the thunder of his heart interrupted his listening, but eventually he trained it down to a languid thud, a feat that seemed to take decade. Now only his rasping disturbed the night air around him. He felt certain there was no one at the park and that it was safe to descend upon the comfort of the bark chips and battered swings.

'Yami…' he wheezed. He heard no reply, nor felt a single stirring in the Puzzle. He suddenly felt cold and naked. 'Yami…?'

* * *

Seto saw a small row of shops at the end of the road. He strode past them, casting a watchful eye all around him, picking out every bench, checking for a sharp shock of purple hair. Seeing nothing he carried on around the corner towards a large grassy slope. He walked down the path at its perimeter, the topmost pole of the swings coming into view.

He picked his way around a spattering of small puddles before venturing onto the sodden bark chips, his step feeling springy. He saw the glowing cherries of a few cigarettes hovering in the dark by the swings and a faint murmuring of voices. Seto squinted at them, but the light of the streetlamps didn't reach so far as the core of the play park. His back became rigid and his jaw set.

'Yuugi?'

The murmuring ceased and the cigarette lights became still.

'Nah man,' came a dull, heavy accent through the dark.

Seto blinked.

'Have you seen a short kid with spiky hair come by?'

'Yer, he came and sat on the swings. Don't think he noticed us at first. Fucked off pretty sharpish when he realised we were here –'

'Which way did he go?' Seto's voice was harsh and blunt. There was a pause before the voice answered.

'That way,' the cherry of his smoker wiggled in the direction of a pathway on the other side of the playing field. 'Went fast though, dunno if you'd be able to catch up with him.'

Seto was about to march off towards the path, when he realised he didn't know where he would be going at all. This area of Domino had no more to offer than over-priced houses and spawnings from the shallow end of the IQ pool.

'What's down there? '

'Nothing much,' said a different voice. 'Just a load of houses. The streets all come out on the main road if you go pretty much straight forwards. Then you got open fields of livestock and a load of abandoned bus stops –'

Without so much as a second glance or a thank-you Seto had disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

Yuugi had found an out of service bus stop on the corner of a street that opened out onto the larger road. He sat and leant against the cold breeze blocks, gazing idly at the crude graffiti, eyes wandering over every now and then to a small gathering of black cows in the field opposite. The concrete floor of the stop made his backside numb, but he didn't dare to sit on the small, wooden bench inside for fear of various bodily fluids and creepy crawlies. A hint of urine and vomit was present. Yuugi pointed his face into the flow of fresh air rushing around in the open until he caught the whiff of cattle. He then buried his nose into the crook of his crossed arms and squeezed his eyes shut. He whimpered, then sobbed as his flesh became corpse cold.

Yuugi wasn't sure how long he had been huddling in the bus stop before he heard the clipping of smart shoes coming up the pavement in his direction. He ignored it for a passerby and kept his face planted firmly in his arms. He tears had long since dried up.

Still he didn't look up as the footfalls came closer, but when they came to a halt directly in front of him he felt the sick, pulsating throbs of panic underneath his tongue. His thoughts darted around from one hopeful thought to another.

_Is it Jounouchi? Or Honda? Anzu?_

He peered up cautiously though the wispy blonde of his fringe. He was met with slabs of calculating slate and he gasped, diving back into the safety of his arms, not daring to look up into those eyes again.

Seto huffed and shifted his weight onto one tired foot. He had gone up and down several streets, had peered into more than a few bus stops and was now at the end of an incredibly short tether. It felt as though a silent decade was slipping by and still Yuugi would not unfold and face him. Seto stared intently at Yuugi. He was wearing nothing more than simple trousers, a tank top and cotton socks, which were now stained and sopping from the mud of the playing field. His little body was visibly quaking, whether from cold or fear or heartbreak Seto couldn't be sure. His eyebrow tweaked.

'Yuugi, time actually does equal money in my world. I can't stand here all night waiting for you to thaw.'

Yuugi's great head of wild hair shivered as he shook his head, still not looking up.

'Look at me, Yuugi.'

He shook his head again, more frantically than before.

'Yuugi! _Look. At. Me.'_

As he began to shake his head once more Seto snarled and in a single fluid movement had taken Yuugi's upper arm in a painful grip, squeezing hard. Seto's long fingers wrapped around the skinny limb completely, fingers meeting thumb. Seto fought the urge to gasp at the thinness and let go.

'Yuugi! For fuck's sake, I've been tramping all over the fucking place looking for you!'

Yuugi had slumped into the powerful grip of Seto's large hand, which was all but holding him upright. He felt an overwhelming desire to relinquish control of his body, to let himself be dragged across the floor, through the tall wet grass of the fields and then left in a ditch, choking on stinging nettles and dandelion clocks.

Seto examined Yuugi. He was frowning slightly, looking at nothing. His round face was half cast in the buttery glow of the streetlamps, the other half lost in the darkness. His cheeks gleamed with tears. He felt the little body becoming a dead weight and moved quickly to grab the other arm, shifting his grasp to the underarms, now holding Yuugi an inch off the floor, staring crossly into his deep-set eye sockets.

'Your mother will be going spare, you absolute bollard. I sometimes wonder if your mediocre dog of a friend has more brain cells than you, Yuugi.'

The small mouth quivered and a fresh wave of tears fell. A quiet whine escaped his lips before he reached up and grasped the wrists that held him up. Seto wasn't sure if the tight grip was a request to let him go or if Yuugi just wanted to hold onto something. His frown deepened before he returned the boy to the ground.

'K-Kaiba-kun, what are-are you doing h-here?'

Seto's eyes flickered exasperatedly to the dark shapes of the cattle across the road.

'I came to the shop to propose a rematch; I'm still convinced you cheated the last time we battled.'

Yuugi ogled his rival, but said nothing.

'The shop door was open, so I let myself in. I found your grandfather, and your imaginary friend's house. You left it lying on the floor.'

Seto let his words sink in before carrying on in an icy tone.

'If that's how you treat your best friends, I'm glad I never gave two thoughts to accepting your numerous offers of companionship.'

Yuugi sobbed at Seto's words, pushing the heels of his wrists into his eyes. He hunched over and let his head fall against Seto's body. He cried out all the more loudly before slinging his short arms around the comparably vast waist of his rival and clung like a limpet. Seto scowled, feeling indignant at the invasion of his space, his body stiff with discomfort, though he made no move to peel the boy off.

With Yuugi still clinging onto him, he fished around in the deep pocket of his coat. He produced an expensive mobile phone, which slid open, its minuscule buttons glowing blue. He rapidly dialled a number and held the device to his ear.

'Roland. I found him. Come to the corners of the streets that lead onto the main road, look for black cattle. Be quick.'

* * *

Ten minutes later Seto was sitting in the back of his limo, constantly having to push Yuugi off his side with a sharp elbow. Yuugi grumbled, obviously exhausted.

'Wanna sleep…where's Yami…'

Seto sighed, rubbing a throbbing temple.

'Ten more minutes, Yuugi, and you'll be with your mother and your imaginary pharaoh friend. Just _stop_ using me for a pillow.'

'S'warm though…'

'_Urgh –'_

Seto gave up and let Yuugi's head flop against his arm. A few sharp turns around corners and Yuugi was nestled in his lap. Seto just scowled; his arms and legs crossed, his hard gaze fixed on the opposite seat. Several moments passed before he finally looked down at Yuugi, startling a little when he saw the deep violet eyes staring at him, the same way Mutou Sugoroku's dead eyes had been fixed on the television screen.

Yuugi's brow puckered. For a fleeting moment he was certain he saw the warm, crimson glow of the Pharaoh in Seto's eyes, which were otherwise blank and cold. The Pharaoh's affectionate comfort seemed present in the vehicle, as though Yuugi had merely taken the Puzzle off and tucked it under the seat, or as if a member of his company was wearing the item instead.

'Kaiba-kun…'

'What.'

'Did you touch the Puzzle on when you found it?'

Seto faltered, feeling incredibly uneasy all of a sudden.

'No. Why?'

Yuugi's scowl deepened before fading away completely, leaving a peaceful face in its wake. He rolled over and nuzzled Seto's knee, trying to get comfortable.

'Oh, it just sort of feels like the Pharaoh is here.'

Seto shuddered and desperately tried to ignore the mad tinkling in his ears.

A few more turns and the limo had rolled up to the Kame Game Shop. All the lights were on in both the house and the shop. Yuugi's mother was standing at the door, her face pale and worried. She held Yuugi's Puzzle in her hands.

Roland swept around the side of the limousine and opened his master's door. Yuugi stepped out and ran to his mother, who enveloped him in an embrace before placing the Puzzle around his neck. She turned away to head back into the shop, Yuugi following her with a discreetly gleaming item of jewellery around his neck.

As the _K4IBA2_ pulled away, Seto clawed his forehead, the merry jingling of the Puzzle growing into the clamourous din of cathedral bells.

* * *

**Author's Note:**FIN. I didn't really know what I was doing here. I hope you liked it.

Review! Or the Pharaoh will contaminate your soul!


End file.
